Or sales tax, or 'sin' taxes, or, well, one could argue that all taxes are a nuisance.
Taxes are necessary; the debates about what form they should take, how burdensome, and to what purpose are endless, but a nuisance.

Yes, indeed, taxes are a nuisance and I thought it was great that someone called them that. Here in California it is especially so, but our neighbor to the north, Oregon, has NO SALES TAX. Lots of my friends make the hour drive north to shop in Oregon, of course.

The California sales tax rate is 7.5%, and the maximum CA sales tax after local surtaxes is 9.75%.
◾Groceries and prescription drugs are exempt from the California sales tax
◾Counties and cities can charge an additional local sales tax of up to 2.25%
◾California has 2558 special sales tax jurisdictions with local sales taxes in addition to the state sales tax
◾California has a higher state sales tax than 100% of states

California has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country, and had the highest for years until a tax reduction in July 2011. Cities and municipalities can charge an additional local sales tax (known as a "District Tax") on top of the California state sales tax, which means California residents can pay as much as 10% combined state and local sales tax on their purchases. The California sales tax is as high as it is, relative to the other states, as compensation for reduced property taxes in California (which were introduced by Proposition 13 in 1978).

Yes, indeed, taxes are a nuisance and I thought it was great that someone called them that. Here in California it is especially so, but our neighbor to the north, Oregon, has NO SALES TAX. Lots of my friends make the hour drive north to shop in Oregon, of course.

The California sales tax rate is 7.5%, and the maximum CA sales tax after local surtaxes is 9.75%.
◾Groceries and prescription drugs are exempt from the California sales tax
◾Counties and cities can charge an additional local sales tax of up to 2.25%
◾California has 2558 special sales tax jurisdictions with local sales taxes in addition to the state sales tax
◾California has a higher state sales tax than 100% of states

California has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country, and had the highest for years until a tax reduction in July 2011. Cities and municipalities can charge an additional local sales tax (known as a "District Tax") on top of the California state sales tax, which means California residents can pay as much as 10% combined state and local sales tax on their purchases. The California sales tax is as high as it is, relative to the other states, as compensation for reduced property taxes in California (which were introduced by Proposition 13 in 1978).

I will post a word in a while...

This makes me think that the EU VAT would be a godsend to all, accountants included, in California. Incidentally, the 'nipping over the Border' tax avoidance scheme is, or maybe was, used in Ireland.

Handley, I am certain there is a better way of handling sales tax in California, but, for now, it is what it is and I have learned to live with it.

But, our minimum wage is one of the highest in the country;

California's minimum wage is $8.00 per hour. This is greater than the Federal Minimum Wage.

In September 2013 California passed House Bill AB10, which approved the first minimum wage raise for Californians in six years. The bill will raise the California Minimum Wage to $9.00 per hour effective July 2014, and to $10.00 per hour effective January 2016. The highest minimum wage in the United States is currently $9.19 per hour in Washington state.

California has one of the highest state minimum wage rates, and the San Francisco minimum wage of $10.24 per hour is the highest minimum wage in the United States. Unlike many other states, tipped employees in California are also entitled to the full minimum wage of $8.00 per hour. (In Tennessee, tipped employees get $2.13 an hour, for instance).

As of January 1st, 2012, the San Francisco minimum wage was raised to $10.24 per hour - the first city in the United States to have a minimum wage over $10.00 per hour.

I promise I will post another word, once I get off the tax bent I started...

This makes me think that the EU VAT would be a godsend to all, accountants included, in California. Incidentally, the 'nipping over the Border' tax avoidance scheme is, or maybe was, used in Ireland.

The Irish pig scam was a real money maker for farmers in the Ireland and Ulster a few years ago.

By transporting pigs across the border from Ireland into Ulster (or the other way around), EU subsidies could be claimed. They could then return via a different crossing point. Thousands of pigs were commuting until someone realised that you could do it with 'virtual' pigs, just sending the paperwork across the border and back again.

There is a small village in Belgium, Adinkirke,Link that is the first settlement across the border from France. Once the duty-free concession for channel crossings was abolished, the ships sold cigarettes and tobacco at France's state-regulated prices - slightly cheaper than in the UK.

But Belgium's taxes on cigarettes and tobacco are much lower than in France, and significantly lower than in the UK. When the French government increased the taxes on cigarettes and tobacco, Belgium became very cheap.

Adinkirke sells nothing but cigarettes and tobacco, mainly to the English. It is about ten minutes drive from Dunkerque, and half an hour from Calais.

A cheaper place in Europe is Andorra. Cigarettes and tobacco trundle into Andorra in large trucks and trundle out again in small vans and cars.

electricblue66: It's like [oggbashan] is writing for the third puffin over there by the sixth rock, when everyone else is an emperor penguin in the Antarctic, where there's tens of thousands of the bastards.

electricblue66: It's like [oggbashan] is writing for the third puffin over there by the sixth rock, when everyone else is an emperor penguin in the Antarctic, where there's tens of thousands of the bastards.

We in the UK eat Turkey on Christmas Day and leftovers all the following week...

More, same source, about Turkeys:

Turkey - A Royal Marine Light Infantryman, from their scarlet tunics from circa 1870

Turkey-Buyer - A Toff, a Banker, an important person 'because it costs more than twopence to buy gobblers' late C19th - early C20th

turkey-cock, turn as red as a - To blush violently - mostly provincial and colonial - from circa 1860 [Og's note. Later use is the flush indicative of high blood pressure.]

turkey-merchant - 1. a driver of turkeys. late C17th - early C18th A pun on Turkey Merchant, one trading with Turkey and the Levant; 2. a poulterer mid C18th - mid C19th surviving in use until about 1880; 3. A chicken thief; 4. A dealer in contraband (smuggled) silk - up to 1839; 5. An extensive dealer in scrip i.e. a stockbroker usually a dubious one from circa 1875

electricblue66: It's like [oggbashan] is writing for the third puffin over there by the sixth rock, when everyone else is an emperor penguin in the Antarctic, where there's tens of thousands of the bastards.

Turkey on Christmas in the UK sounds lovely, Og. We had a rib roast, which was delicious and was followed by French Dip Sandwiches as leftovers. Thank you, as always, for posting those interesting words.

n.g. US usage 1840; UK usage 1890 No go; i.e. a failure OR No Good. More modern version n.b.g. 'No Bloody Good' i.e. useless of a person or object. Even more modern (late C20th n.b.f.g. 'No Bloody Fucking Good'.)

electricblue66: It's like [oggbashan] is writing for the third puffin over there by the sixth rock, when everyone else is an emperor penguin in the Antarctic, where there's tens of thousands of the bastards.

So, 1sickbastard, would a porcine appetite at an afternoon nummet be a no-no?

Nox - noun the Roman goddess of night

Is this where the nox in equi-nox comes from, I wonder?

Nox is also the nominative singular of the (third declension, feminine) Latin noun meaning night. (The scholars among us will know that the genitive singular is noctisówhich we see in English words like nocturnal, nocturne,, and, yes, equinoctial, the adjectival form of equinox).

Nowl - the head of an animal, as distinguished from that of a man.

An ass's nowl I fixed upon his head. (Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream)